Castrated Oboe

The castrated oboe is Delia's name for a sound she created by recording her own voice at different pitches, splicing together a melody from fragments, high-pass filtering and adding reverberation.

Delia has since referred to [Blue Veils and Golden Sands] as including her "castrated oboe", but the only non-electronic source really recorded is her voice, cut up and re-pieced.

Availability

Samples from the Attic Tapes, showing steps in the construction of the castrated oboe, are included in the 2008 article Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer:

• Original recording of Delia's voice

• Fragments of different pitches of voice spliced into the Blue Veils melody

• The melody passed through a high-pass filter and with reverberation added